


Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

by alastairWright, LadyAngelique



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Fluff, M/M, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, and they get a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:42:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25929841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alastairWright/pseuds/alastairWright, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAngelique/pseuds/LadyAngelique
Summary: Steve didn’t know what he would do once he lost his horse trainer, but he would figure it out. Even if it killed him he would figure out what to do to save his ranch. The right man wouldn’t just appear for the job, but maybe he would? What did he know?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 9





	Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

**Author's Note:**

>   
> It was a pleasure working with LadyAngelique. They are so talented and it was amazing to use their art and ideas as a sounding board for the indulgent fic of my dreams.  
> Betaed by [Boudreaux_13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boudreaux_13)

“SOLD!”

* * *

_Earlier that same day…_

The morning started good, and then turned windy, as all fair days did. Every weekend before and after the county fair would be nice weather of course, but fair weekend always was unpleasant somehow. It was the nature of fair time. Sure Mama would always say that this year would be different, but it never was. Like everything else in this town, the hype was different than the reality. Steve didn’t want to go, it was a horrible way to spend a Saturday, but Mama didn’t give him a choice. Did he think that he would be living with his parents still at 26?

Sorta. He figured he’d be close by, in one of the cabins that made up their ranch, but in a strange turn of events, his parents moved to one of the cabins and gave him the main house. They said it made sense since he was now in charge of Rogers Farm. He wasn’t the type who had grand ambitions and made plans to leave their town as soon as he could. He was more the type of man who wanted to work with his hands and be in nature as much as he could. Any other choice of career would have him sacrificing part of that. Anyways the fair was a tradition and Mama insisted that he scrub up and join them there.

They had a small booth where they sold stuff. It was the best way to describe it. They couldn’t say they specialized in one thing because Mama wasn’t that type of woman, she’d rather dabble in many projects than focus on just one. There was jam, cookies, fudge, carved figures, soaps, lotions, leather work, etc. In years past they hadn’t had a booth, but with his parents more or less retired, there was more time on their hands. Both his parents contributed and it kept them busy. Sure they still helped out with the ranch, but it wasn’t consistent. Hell, he would be the first to tell you that he didn’t think retirement would suit them, but they took the chance to finally try all the things they had wanted to, but never had time for before.

The fair was a pretty big event and so he let all of his employees have the days off. All 2 of them. Steve worked as the general foreman and with the sheep and their few goats. Nat was the other hand that worked sheep with him. Her partner Clint worked with the horses in the past, but now he did more field work. He blamed Clint for the goats they had now, damned pains in his ass. He showed up with a few in the bed of his truck about a year back, he never did find out where they came from, but Clint insisted that they keep them. If he just had to work them like he did his sheep it would have been fine, but most of them were milker’s, so they required a different kind of working. Steve liked them just fine now, but it was a hell of a learning curve trying to figure out how to take care of them and how to deal with all the milk they now had.

However, ever since Steve had to fire Rumlow a few weeks back they all were stretched even thinner. Rumlow had been a hell of a cowboy and was better with horses than anyone Steve had ever seen. That’s why he had stayed for as long as he had. He had a temper, was generally a terrible man, perhaps too forward or pushy but Steve had been able to overlook that. It was against his nature to do so, but his father had worked for them and so his Pop had hired on Rumlow when he could as a favor. Pop had talked him out of firing him several times, and it worked every time because for as awful as he was personally, he was a damn good worker.

But the man had tried to take advantage of Clint. He snuck up while his hearing aids were out, and when Steve happened upon them they were both on the ground. He wasn’t an aggressive man, but he saw red when he saw Clint struggling underneath Rumlow. It took a few solid punches to Rumlow to get him off Clint and agreeable. He left within minutes of that exchange.

Good riddance! Except it put them in a bind for a new cowboy. In their small town in Colorado there weren’t many options. Sure there were some people hurting for jobs, but Steve wasn’t going to hire just anybody. He couldn’t be the bleeding heart with a farm to run; he’d be out of business then. They were known for having quality work horses, and there weren’t people with that skill set just lying around. It had worked well enough with Rumlow.Steve could do it, he knew how to but he had learned that it wasn’t a job he could just teach to someone. Lord knows he tried to train Clint and that wasn’t going well. And well if it got too bad he’d go back to working the horses, but he liked his new job working as the foreman and with the small animals, it was better for him, and better for his health.

From the time he could walk, Pop had him on a horse, training him how to work them. It was grueling work, he was good at it, but he didn’t enjoy it. Technically Mama was very against it, but he was an adult who could make his own decisions. He would risk whatever it took to keep the ranch afloat. He just couldn’t imagine losing it or what he’d do if that happened. This was his Pop’s legacy, he built up Roger’s Ranch with his hard work and a dream. Steve would be damned before he saw that fail.

It was a conundrum to be sure. Until it was resolved he wasn’t going to be sleeping much. He was going to be spread pretty thin. So logically he shouldn’t have given them time off, but they deserved it. Clint and Nat had stuck by him through thick and thin, and it had been a stressful few weeks on every one. Plus he knew that as much as they denied it, they loved the fair more than he would ever understand. They had been talking for weeks about the rodeo, and the food, and the carnival, and the food. Clint had a singular mind around good food. Steve could make it work, he would just juggle. It would be fine.

Needless to say though, he was exhausted. But his Mama had asked that he meet her down at the fair today, so that’s what he would do.

“Boy you’re looking worse for the wear.” She said as soon as he came into view.

“Always what I wanna hear from you.” He gave her a one-armed side hug as she was bustling around.

“I tell you the truth, if you don’t like it then change something up.” His Mama was nothing but straightforward.

“Well I’m here. That’s all you asked of me. And while we’re on the subject why exactly am I here?”

“Well you see Mary Margaret had just the best idea on the fair committee and well I have to support her in this.” And she was also conniving, she would make plans and expect Steve and his Pop to follow along.

“I fail to see how this affects me.”

“Well we’re doing a fundraiser for the town, the school needs some funding for their library.” He nodded at this, their library probably used the same books that they did when he was a student.

“A fundraiser is a good idea.” He said nodding.

“I’m glad you think so! So anyways we decided to do an auction. Originally she suggested a raffle but I told her that we needed something more lively, something to really draw in a crowd and get people willing to pull out their pocket books. I swear it used to be easier to do a raffle, but we have to go along with the times I suppose.” He cut her off before she could ramble any further. If he let her keep going somehow they’d end up all the way back to the founding of the town and he didn’t want to hear that, again.

“So what am I doing here Mama? I know you asked me here for a reason. If you didn’t I’m going to be a bit annoyed, since you know that I’m buried up to my eyeballs in work back at the ranch.”

“Bah, all you do is work. How am I supposed to get grand babies that way Steve!” And they had cycled back to her _other favorite topic._

“Mama, just put me out of my misery and let me know what you volunteered me for. Don’t try and tell me you didn’t drag me into whatever it is you and Mary Ellen are doing.”

“It’s with Mary Margaret and well we decided to auction off lunch dates with different people in town.” She reached down and pulled out an honest-to-God picnic basket from underneath the table. “Here I made up a picnic, way more romantic than taking someone over to Ruby Slipper off of Main Street. The auction is up at the main stage in 10 minutes, so I need you to head over now. You tell Mary Margaret I’ll be there as soon as I can wrestle your Pop away from his barbecue.”

He would like the record to show that he was very much against this. In fact his evening included a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream while listening to a podcast. Not whatever this would end up being. Likely it would be some overeager girl, wanting to rub herself all over him, or undressing him with her eyes. It sounded like a horrible way to spend an evening, no matter if his Mama’s picnic was involved or not. Damn her for putting him through this. It must be some revenge because she really had been harping him about settling down, finding someone to be with. She was fine if it was a guy or a girl she just didn’t want him to be alone. Pops made it clear that he wanted Steve to find a nice girl, and Steve hadn’t really argued the point since he didn’t care for dating all that much. He just had to convince himself that this would be fine, and just a little afternoon divergence, nothing more.

_He was an idiot for ever really thinking that one afternoon wouldn’t change his life._


End file.
